we have added to the rights of the
wife in regard to property and in many other respects. We now
give to her a legal status in this country that she has not in
England or in any European country. She has now a legal status
that she had not twenty-five years ago, and progress is still
going on in that direction. While it was argued by old
law-writers and old law-makers that to allow women to hold
property separate from their husbands was to break up the harmony
of the marriage relation, we know practically that it has not
worked that way. We know that as we have made woman independent,
recognized her legal existence as a wife, secured her rights, it
has elevated her. We know that instead of disturbing the marriage
relation, it has improved it constantly; and I believe that the
woman has the same natural right to a voice in this Government
that the man has. If we believe in the theory of our Government
that must be so. I believe that as you make woman the equal of
man in regard to civil rights, rights of property, rights of
person, political rights, you elevate her, you make her happier;
and as you do that you elevate the male sex also.

This idea that women will be degraded by allowing them to go to
the polls comes down to us from other countries and from remote
periods of civilization. Why, sir, in countries now that claim to
be civilized it is said that to allow the wife or the mother to
go to the dinner-table with the husband and meet his guests face
to face degrades her and degrades them. In some countries a woman
must not appear on the streets unless she is so closely veiled
that she can not be recognized; for it is said to allow her to go
upon the streets barefaced or so thinly veiled that she can be
recognized, subjects her to insult and degrades her; and in some
countries to-day it destroys her character as effectually as
other things would destroy her character in our country. We know
that is a prejudice; and the idea that woman will be degraded by
giving her the right of suffrage is a remnant of that same idea.
It is born of the same parentage. It has no sounder reason for it
than these other nations have. I believe that to give women the
right of suffrage would elevate the character of suffrage in this
country. It would make the pol